No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
00:49:37 · Elad Gil, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Sarah Guo
[00:49:37] S4: period of technology, at least, I've seen my career. Mean it's so exciting in terms of everything that's happening with AI. Every week there's something new that's changed. [00:49:44] S1: Are you tired or invigorated? [00:49:46] S4: I'm both. I everybody's feel in manic phase. [00:49:52] S0: Yes. It's a combination of invigorated and exhausting. [00:49:55] S4: Yeah. It's wonderful. And so I guess, know, things are very unpredictable right now. It's really hard to know what's coming. We have this almost like early signs of exponentation on the model side with agentic flows that we're starting to see in really interesting ways. Models starting to help more and more with models, but that's still very very early days for that. If you're thinking back five years from now and you were to define what success was relative to your efforts, and I know things are very dynamic, things changed a lot. But you have this common thread of tooling for the Biohub. You have a common thread of empowering scientists at scale. You're looking back five years from now, is there a specific thing that you really want to make sure that you've accomplished or achieved or a primary goal? [00:50:37] S3: Well, I mean, I think we
00:50:37 · Sarah Guo, Mark Zuckerberg
[00:50:37] S3: Well, I mean, I think we [00:50:37] S0: have a pretty clear view of this hierarchical set of world models that we wanna build around biology. And the other part of that is that we wanna do the highest quality work in the world. Right? I mean, I and I think we're basically set up to do that between having a world class AI research team and this collection of of Biohubster world class life sciences research organizations. I think that that's, like, fundamentally a setup that no other organization in the world has. But, you know, you can have a lot of great ingredients, and that doesn't guarantee that you succeed. And so, I mean, to me, five years from now looking back, I think, you know, I'm sure other labs or efforts will try to produce things that approximate what we're trying to do. And I just think that we should be able to do something that is meaningfully better and a unique intellectual contribution to the world. I think that that's kind of what you, whenever you do any kind of research, that's what you're trying to do. Right? So, yeah, so if we do that, think we'll all feel very good. I would also expect that at some point we'll just start seeing a lot more idea generation from the people using the models. But I have enough faith that that part will materialize that for me, it's more just about, like, making sure that we do world class work. And I think if we do, like, the rest almost will take care of itself.
00:50:37 · Mark Zuckerberg, Sarah Guo
[00:50:37] S0: have a pretty clear view of this hierarchical set of world models that we wanna build around biology. And the other part of that is that we wanna do the highest quality work in the world. Right? I mean, I and I think we're basically set up to do that between having a world class AI research team and this collection of of Biohubster world class life sciences research organizations. I think that that's, like, fundamentally a setup that no other organization in the world has. But, you know, you can have a lot of great ingredients, and that doesn't guarantee that you succeed. And so, I mean, to me, five years from now looking back, I think, you know, I'm sure other labs or efforts will try to produce things that approximate what we're trying to do. And I just think that we should be able to do something that is meaningfully better and a unique intellectual contribution to the world. I think that that's kind of what you, whenever you do any kind of research, that's what you're trying to do. Right? So, yeah, so if we do that, think we'll all feel very good. I would also expect that at some point we'll just start seeing a lot more idea generation from the people using the models. But I have enough faith that that part will materialize that for me, it's more just about, like, making sure that we do world class work. And I think if we do, like, the rest almost will take care of itself. [00:51:54] S3: Very last question for you. Snapshot of it's mid twenty twenty six. What's the biggest update in your own thinking about Biohub or the domain from the last year?
00:52:05 · Mark Zuckerberg
[00:52:05] S0: Well, from the last year. I mean, you joined in the last year. I mean, I think the the biggest thing that that we basically rotated and and I think in the last year, we basically kinda formalized that Biohub is the main focus of our philanthropy. So I think this has been a very big shift. But Alex and the team coming in, I think, been interesting, not only because it's a world class group. Right? I mean, you guys have worked together for a while. I think also, I mean, you talked about how stuff is changing so much in the field. I think one thing that's underrated is this is an extremely talented group of people who also know each other and work well together and are stable and good. And I think that that also is underestimated in terms of the compounding benefit of people being able to work well in a stable environment over time. So I think that that's a really important piece. But part of what we wanted to do was, prior to Alex leading the effort, the previous leaders of the Biohub were basically primarily biologists who were interested in technology. Now I think this is the point where we really flip that, where, I mean, obviously you have a background in biology as well, but you are primarily an AI researcher who has a background in biology. I think that that's a deep reflection on the way that we expect that this is going to drive more value in the future. So those are probably the biggest updates in the last year in terms of the work that we're doing. I mean, it's a new leader, not just the leader, but a team that I think has been is like really good.
00:53:48 · Elad Gil, Mark Zuckerberg
[00:53:48] S4: And then, yeah, I mean, [00:53:49] S0: I think on the rest of the industry, it's like it's on track. I mean, I think, like, every it's it's kind of this crazy thing because, like, when you have an exponentially growing curve, I think the way that an exponential curve feels is it's growing so quickly that the the kind of emotional feeling is it can't possibly keep going. Mhmm. Right? Because, like, it's because it's just like but but, I mean, the nature of an exponential curve is it it doesn't just keep going. It keeps accelerating. Right? Exponential growth is accelerating. So I think that that has all these emotions and psychology attached to it. But I think fundamentally when you look at the curve in the industry, the kind of fundamental thing is it is on track. It has remained on that curve, which I think has all these very profound implications for all of these domains. But, certainly, it validates and makes one feel very good about making a very big investment in in the things that that will play out if that if you stay on that track, and it seems like we are. So that, I think, is very good news. [00:54:51] S4: I think the most important aspect of what you're doing there is you're actually closing the loop with the actual biology. Mhmm. Because with code and research, it's closed loop systems. And so they're very fast to iterate. This is an open loop system, so you're closing a loop. And that's that's really crucial to progress.
00:54:51 · Elad Gil, Priscilla Chan, Sarah Guo, Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Rives
[00:54:51] S4: I think the most important aspect of what you're doing there is you're actually closing the loop with the actual biology. Mhmm. Because with code and research, it's closed loop systems. And so they're very fast to iterate. This is an open loop system, so you're closing a loop. And that's that's really crucial to progress. [00:55:04] S1: Yeah. For me, one of the biggest changes with the strategy we're driving now, and Alex at the helm is, you know, before we had amazing teams moving generally in the same direction and understanding, like, the potential collaborations and interconnectedness of our work. But now we are arms linked moving together, which It's is very very directed. And it's very exciting. It's a little bit scary, but it's like truly a team playing off each other and trying to make progress towards this goal. And that has taken a lot of work, but also the maturity, our teams being able to have their work at a level of maturation where it actually does make sense to interlock. [00:55:54] S3: Amazing. Well, to teams being on the curve, thank you guys for doing this. [00:55:57] S0: Thank you for joining us. Yeah. [00:55:58] S1: Thank you. [00:55:59] S2: Thank you. [00:56:02] S3: Find us on Twitter nopriarspod. Subscribe to our YouTube channel if you wanna see our faces. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. That way you get a new episode every week. And sign up for emails or find transcripts for every episode at nopriors.com.